Colossians 3:12
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Another strange passage. The first three clauses highlight part of what I mean - it appears from the syntax here that we are the "elect of God" and we are "holy and beloved" even before we "put on" all these nice attributes like kindness. Okay, I understand the "elect" part easily enough. God is merciful and takes us into his service before we have reached perfection. He takes us as is. Fair enough. In this way, we may have a lot to "put on" when we walk in through the door. This is called Grace, and it is called Mercy.
I even understand the word "beloved" based on this same idea. He loves us without regard to our circumstances. After all, we are his creation and his re-creation. Of course, we're beloved.
But then, how can we be called "holy" before we begin to act in holy ways? What could that word even mean for a person who has not yet put on the qualities Paul is talking about? A person without Kindness for instance? Can you imagine pointing to an unkind person and saying "yep, in my religion, that man is holy"? Well, I think I can explain that as well.
For good or for bad (and in understanding this verse, I think it's bad) the word Holy when applied to people has come to mean someone who has attained a certain type of behavior - a level of goodness, a nearness to God and godliness. That's one meaning of the word. But step back from that a moment and take a look at the word as it might be applied to an inanimate object, for instance, when God told Moses he was on holy ground. Clearly, the word in that sense says nothing about behavior. One expects that holy ground didn't look or act any differently from unholy ground. What does the word mean then?
I think the word must mean something like touched by God. Now sometimes God's touch kills you, so let us not go thinking that this touch is always a good thing. The word then, for our purposes, means something like "Separated by God for God" with the addition that since we've be chosen, elected, we should start to act that way. Being separated out for God's use doesn't make us holy in the other sense of the word. That may be a long process which we BEGIN at the time of the separation/election. Understandint hings this way means that we have much work to do even though we are already holy.
I'll talk about the list of qualities another day, but I'm glad we got that cleared up...
Another strange passage. The first three clauses highlight part of what I mean - it appears from the syntax here that we are the "elect of God" and we are "holy and beloved" even before we "put on" all these nice attributes like kindness. Okay, I understand the "elect" part easily enough. God is merciful and takes us into his service before we have reached perfection. He takes us as is. Fair enough. In this way, we may have a lot to "put on" when we walk in through the door. This is called Grace, and it is called Mercy.
I even understand the word "beloved" based on this same idea. He loves us without regard to our circumstances. After all, we are his creation and his re-creation. Of course, we're beloved.
But then, how can we be called "holy" before we begin to act in holy ways? What could that word even mean for a person who has not yet put on the qualities Paul is talking about? A person without Kindness for instance? Can you imagine pointing to an unkind person and saying "yep, in my religion, that man is holy"? Well, I think I can explain that as well.
For good or for bad (and in understanding this verse, I think it's bad) the word Holy when applied to people has come to mean someone who has attained a certain type of behavior - a level of goodness, a nearness to God and godliness. That's one meaning of the word. But step back from that a moment and take a look at the word as it might be applied to an inanimate object, for instance, when God told Moses he was on holy ground. Clearly, the word in that sense says nothing about behavior. One expects that holy ground didn't look or act any differently from unholy ground. What does the word mean then?
I think the word must mean something like touched by God. Now sometimes God's touch kills you, so let us not go thinking that this touch is always a good thing. The word then, for our purposes, means something like "Separated by God for God" with the addition that since we've be chosen, elected, we should start to act that way. Being separated out for God's use doesn't make us holy in the other sense of the word. That may be a long process which we BEGIN at the time of the separation/election. Understandint hings this way means that we have much work to do even though we are already holy.
I'll talk about the list of qualities another day, but I'm glad we got that cleared up...
Labels: Colossians
posted by Steven at 7:17 AM
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